The main value of these Iraq pages is in the links to specific articles from
section 2 onwards. Use the first, general section for an overview. However,
using the later links will indicate clearly the longstanding involvement of the
UK and the US in Iraq well before the current conflict & occupation that
followed.

Iraq under Occupation Detailed Special
website from Aljazeera.net includes
interactive maps, history lines as well as
articles on key aspects of modern Iraq &
profiles of leading Iraq individuals.

History of the Middle East Database
Use this teaching resource by to place Iraq
in a geographical and cultural
context. Contains histories and
bibliographies of the countries in the
region. Also a thorough linked
timeline: Benchmarks
in the History of Modern Iraq

Arab View is a collection of articles written by leading
journalists and editors in the Middle East. Brief but very useful as
a base line start. No longer "live", these are stored on the Wayback
Archive. §History sections on:

The creation of the Iraqi state: 1914 to 1974 Podcast from
the UK National archive. Useful 45 minute lecture by Dr Charles Tripp,
Reader in Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, Univ of
London. Dr Tripp, author of the Cambridge History of Iraq, considers the
consequences of British state-building for Iraq's future.

Miss
Bell's lines in the sand
She was an archaeologist, a linguist and the greatest woman mountaineer
of her age. And in Baghdad in 1921 she drew the boundaries of the
country that became Iraq. James Buchan in
the Guardian, March 2003.

Gertrude Bell, Adventurer, archaeologist and Arabist. BBC
interview with biographer Victor Winstone about Bell's life and
achievements, not least her role in choosing Iraq's first king and
setting up the National Library and Museum in Baghdad. Links to an
audio file of interview.

The Gertrude Bell Project.
Apart from giving a description of her travels and including
documents, this has an excellent archive of her photographs of early
20th century Mesopotamia (use the left hand frame to select "Iraq")

British welcome in BaghdadGuardian article from March 16
1917: "Our vanguard entered Baghdad soon after nine o'clock this
morning. The city is approached by an unmetalled road between palm
groves and orange gardens...."

Hanna Batatu on Iraq Elections
The historian of modern Iraq, Hanna Batatu, describes parliamentary
elections during British colonial rule. Brief excerpt from The Old
Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, Princeton,
1978. (Iraq pages of the
Global Policy Forum)

Iraq and the Empire
This is a look at the Imperial Airways route to the British Empire in
India and the Far East during the 1920's & 30's, showing the key
strategic position of Iraq for the route staging posts. Shown through a
set of contemporary cigarette cards. Worthwhile. §

British Imperialism Has Long History Of Aggression In Iraq Article
by Jonathan Silberman, Militant, 8 March 1998. Faced by a growing popular
insurrection against its imperial dominance of Iraq in 1920, London
carried out an aerial bombing campaign of civilian villages. Churchill
agreed on the use of chemical weapons, of poison gas against
uncivilized tribes.

The Royal Air Force in Iraq (1976) The following text is an excerpt from Britain in Iraq: 1914-1932
by
Peter Sluglett, a historian of modern Iraq, Ithaca Press, 1976.(Global
Policy Forum)

"The RAF Has Done Wonders"
Gertrude Bell, a British colonial official, describes in personal letters
the use of British air power in Iraq in the 1920s, writing that "the RAF
has done wonders bombing insurgent villages." (Gertrude Bell Project)

Iraq was
firstIraq was the first Arab country to join the
League of Nations, having acquired this status by virtue of a treaty
signed with Britain in 1930. Its membership ended the formal British
League mandate & was a landmark in the advancement of Arab nationalism.
Three-quarters of a century later, Iraq was invaded and occupied.
Professor Yunan Labib Rizk examines the two events. (Al-Ahram)

The Byzantine Beginnings: The Quest for Oil
By
Dr. Ferruh Demirmen. Thorough, accessible account from the
Global Policy Forumsite
looks at the key role played by Britain and the early US use
of obstructing League of Nations measures to gain access to the oil.

The Turkish Petroleum
Company Looks at the history of the company, set up by the
British whilst Turkey controlled Iraq and used later by the British
& US partners to exploit oil in Iraq until nationalisation.

The Lion and the Eagle Military Historian Colonel Bernd Fischer
(Ret) looks at Britain’s long-standing pursuit of Iraqi oil.
Excerpts from the communist monthly RotFuchs (Red Fox), November
2002, Berlin, quoted by the Guardian.

Britain's Priority: Control of Oil
ReservesBy Helmut Mejcher Excerpt from
Imperial Quest for Oil: Iraq 1910-1928, (London: Ithaca
Press, 1976). Mejcher demonstrates that oil was in fact at
the centre of British government thinking. This text was published
as part of a research series by St. Antony's College, Oxford
University. Global Policy Forum

The Primacy of Oil in Britain’s Iraq Policy Excerpt from Peter Sluglett’s book
Britain in Iraq. (London: Ithaca Press, 1976.) Analyzes British
Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon’s statement that oil’s influence was
“nil” on the posture of the British government in Iraq.
Global Policy Forum

Oil: The Rewards of Power
Excerpt from The Limits of Power: The World and United States
Foreign Policy 1945-1954 by Joyce and Gabriel Kolko (1972).
Describes the United States' and Britain's struggle for Middle East
oil during the post war period.

Oil Companies Hold Down Production in IraqBy John M. Blair from The Control of
Oil (New York: Pantheon, 1977).Shows how the US and UK companies controlled & held down
production in their Iraq oilfields, in order to maximize their
worldwide profits.Global Policy Forum

The Oil Companies vs. Iraq: Leadup to Nationalization, 1958-1973 Excerpt
from Joe Stork's Middle East Oil and the Energy Crisis (New
York: Monthly Review Press, 1975). Shows how the Anglo-American
companies ignored pressure by the Iraqi government to prospect more
widely and pump more oil. Iraq finally nationalized its oil industry
in June, 1972. The settlement left Iraq with full control of 75
percent of its crude production, but compensation for the takeover
was set at $300 million. The price was not cheap: more than a dozen
years of economic stagnation, political instability, and
confrontation.
Global Policy Forum